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Title and Organization:		Leader, YES Ghana
Gender and Age:		Male, 30
Location:		Accra, Greater Accra
Country of Residence:		Ghana
Country of Birth:		Ghana
Nationalities:		African
Citizenships:		Ghana
Languages:		English



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About Me

EMMANUEL EDUDZIE: A YOUTH FOCAL PERSON FOR DEVELOPMENT ALTERNATIVES

Raised with the Jesuit notion of service to mankind, I have always been interested in society’s injustices and problems, as well as what goes into determining and implementing solutions for such situations. While studying for a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science at the University of Ghana as a young person, I had the opportunity to engage in mainstream international youth processes such as attending Global Youth Conferences of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), and subsequent election to its Youth Advisory Council as one of two Africans that would represent the voices of youth within the UNEP hierarchy.

I’ve had an opportunity to undertake an internship with the headquarters of the United Nations in New York. While at the UN, I augmented my knowledge of emerging social issues, barriers, and gaps in service, and I gained experience in evaluating a programme’s effectiveness in addressing these issues. I joined in day-to-day programme development and management activities and attended most international meetings held at the headquarters, including those of member states at the General Assembly, ECOSOC, and the Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD).

These engagements provided substantial opportunity for me to develop an understanding of international development processes. Additionally, I undertook an eight-month unpaid community service with the Hohoe Community Resource Centre, a grassroots development organisation in Ghana’s Volta region that provides an integrated approach to community development. I was convinced that a local level community engagement would provide a good balance to my essential international exposure, so as to ensure a holistic approach to achieving my career ambition.

My work with YES Ghana has been a life-changing one; I am now a self-motivated, hardworking, confident and highly enthusiastic individual with strong analytical ability and good problem solving skills. I can boast of a strong base of experience and extensive domain knowledge of contemporary development issues and trends, especially with regards youth employment and empowerment. YES Ghana provides for me a nurturing and confidence building environment committed to excellence, with security to promote diverse, creative and fruitful work.

Yet, the work for YES Ghana is also challenging and requires a high level of professionalism and technical know-how. In fact, it was at this job that I came to the realisation that sustainable development requires an integrated approach and the availability of strong institutions. To meet this challenge, I enrolled for a Master of Arts in Governance and Sustainable Development at the Centre for Development Studies, University of Cape Coast, Ghana. Using the Problem-Based Learning (PBL) approach, this career-oriented sandwich programme enables me to approach sustainable development policy-making from an integrative perspective and provides me with the skills relevant for the integrated assessment and management of development issues.

It has been a worthwhile experience working for YES Ghana. Through this work, I have travelled the world over, and I have received international recognition as a “Youth Focal Person for Development Alternatives”. The United Nations Division for Social Policy and Development recently honoured me for “outstanding efforts in support of the work of the United Nations Programme on Youth”.

I have also gained tremendous public speaking and human relations ethics through my work for YES Ghana; delivering over 50 presentations nationally and internationally. I’m also a good writer, with over 15 articles. My most recent publication “Jobs for the Youth; a look at policy design” which appeared in Ghana’s most extensive newspaper, Daily Graphic, generated national debate among relevant stakeholders, leading to a consensus within the civil society sector that any solutions to the youth employment challenge which do not take onboard the expectations, concerns and aspirations of young people vis-à-vis the labour market are doomed to failure.

Society's complex problems stem from many sources: economic changes, the environment, social welfare, population, technology, and family structure to name a few. Through my work as a youth development practitioner, I demonstrate the skills necessary to address these multi-dimensional problems directly and effectively, and pursue my passion for improving the lives of young people, especially youth in abject poverty. With the support of the YES Ghana, I hope to instigate further innovations in addressing the needs of today’s and tomorrow's youth.

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